


Water Once Daily

by Birdpeople (DeusExMachina)



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Background Jace/Clary, Fluff, Ichor, M/M, Obviously the kind of things I find cute and intimate are like, Save water by showering with your Nephillim boyfriend, Washing your significant other's hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2076537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeusExMachina/pseuds/Birdpeople
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A humorless smile stretched Alec’s face like a spasm. It looked painful. “Jace has his panties in a twist over something. I think it’s Clary. I don’t know, he barely talks to me about his love life.” Anymore. “Anyway he’s been running himself into the ground.”</p><p>“And you have to do the same to make sure he doesn’t kill himself, I suppose?” The admonishment was there, but Magnus kept his voice neutral. They weren’t going to fight over this. Not tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water Once Daily

When Alec came around that night, or rather, at four that morning, Magnus barely heard the door shut behind him. In the end, Magnus found Alec leaning slumped back against the door, eyes shut, looking totally drained.

 

He was fully clothed in standard shadowhunter gear, blacker than usual with sticky, residual spatters of ichor. The half-dried, rubbery liquid had been splashed liberally across Alec’s throat and face, coating his lips and chin, concealing across his right hand and wrist, and slicking the ends of his jetty hair into spikes down one side. Magnus knew from experience that the residue would peel away in little plasticky pills, but if left to clean himself up, Alec would scrub his own skin raw without realizing it. Alec just wasn’t careful enough with himself.

 

“Hey,” Magnus said softly, approaching and gently laying thin, brown fingers across Alec’s left wrist. “You okay?”

 

Alec nodded, one eye half-opened and a tired smile hoisted with great difficulty into place. “Yeah,” his voice cracked. “Glad to see you.”

 

Magnus laced his fingers gently but insistently with Alec’s. “Shower?”

 

“Love one. But my gear…”

 

“It’s not a problem,” Magnus said firmly, leading Alec to today’s model of bathroom- soft lighting, white subway-style tiling, glass shower stall- fairly basic, all told.

 

He started the shower with a hiss and got down to unbuckling Alec’s gear, starting with his belt full of deadly, demon-skewering knives, which Magnus laid aside with some apprehension, and working his way from the top down.

 

Alec seemed more tired than usual, swaying slightly where he stood, limp and compliant to Magnus’ ministrations and, most unusually of all, completely silent. What strength or endurance rune he had been using must have long since worn off. The ichor that had dripped down the back of his collar stood out a thin, sickly black against the faded marks across Alec’s shoulders.

 

Finally, Magnus pushed Alec gently toward the shower stall, quickly stripping down and joining Alec to find him leaning his forehead against the tiled wall in his exhaustion.

 

Magnus stroked a knuckle tenderly down Alec’s spine, making him shiver, before setting to work gently washing his hair, working the lather through the gummy ichor and massaging his scalp before inducing Alec to step under the spray and rinse off.

 

Magnus used a gently scented, violently purple bar of soap to work away at the ichor on the back of Alec’s neck, scrubbing with rhythmic persistence as Alec tilted his head forward, the topmost knobs of his spine standing out sharply and worryingly.

 

Magnus finally maneuvered Alec around to lean back against the wall as Magnus lathered away at the ichor on Alec’s right hand. Just around the time his single-mindedness was starting to clear away the black gunk, he was startled by the feeling of a limp hand in his hair.

 

When he met Alec’s affectionate eyes, he became painfully aware of the bruise-colored circles beneath each one.

 

“Have you been sleeping?”

 

Alec dropped his hands to his sides, closing his eyes and allowing Magnus to dab at the viscous black fluid on his face and throat.

 

“Not so much recently, no.” His voice was still hoarse.

 

“Why not?”

 

A humorless smile stretched Alec’s face like a spasm. It looked painful. “Jace has his panties in a twist over something. I think it’s Clary. I don’t know, he barely talks to me about his love life.” _Anymore_. “Anyway he’s been running himself into the ground.”

 

“And you have to do the same to make sure he doesn’t kill himself, I suppose?” The admonishment was there, but Magnus kept his voice neutral. They weren’t going to fight over this. Not tonight.

 

“I know, I know,” Alec said, face anguished, frustrated, shoving the tails of his hair out of his face. “I know it’s stupid. I know I should stop him taking risks. But he’s like a force of nature or something.”

 

“A particularly dim and nearsighted hurricane, no doubt,” Magnus said dryly. Alec rolled his eyes, but cracked the tiniest smile to go with.

 

“You’re telling me. How is it that he can’t hear Clary scratching away with her pencils every night? It drives the rest of us crazy, but Jace just can’t put the pieces together.”

 

“Not like you and me, right?” Magnus murmured, leaning forward to kiss Alec on the lips, once, chastely. He tasted like soap and demon blood. Alec was slumped over so far that he actually had to lift his head to the Warlock. That was nice. Magnus was plenty tall, but Alec was usually a couple of inches taller when he stood up straight.

 

“We do all right,” Alec said. He looked tired. And pleading. Magnus for the life of him couldn’t figure out what he wanted. So he shut the water off and stepped out, drying Alec with one of his fluffy towels before drying himself. They curled up in bed together, a little damp, just as the sky was lightening to the palest inky blue-gray in the East.

**Author's Note:**

> I seriously only read this series for Magnus. Forreal.
> 
> Anywho, my tumblr is quasi-birdpeople.tumblr.com if you want to come and say hi!!


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